This is Chen's best cover in a very long time. Yes it's very simple but that's why I love it. A lot of Chen's covers are very flashy, as if the characters/actors are posing for promos or something. This is a very intimate portrayal of Buffy and a wonderful insight into her character. It's not even Chen's best likeness of her but it still conveys so much about what she's feeling. At this point I don't even know what exactly it is that she's feeling -- you could interpret so much from the portrait -- but I'm getting waves of emotions off of it and I love it. Yay Chen!

This is also my favourite Jeanty cover for the entire season. So I think both artists did a great job for this issue. Well done guys!

B has 'the weight of the world' written all over her face in Jo's cover. Also I swear I've seen Buffy make that exact face. I think it was when she was talking to Spike in the alley about being brought back... or maybe it was to Giles about her quitting if Dawn dies. Maybe both. Regardless, I think it's a beautiful likeness. Very real, somber, and worried.

It's not Chen's best likeness (the face is a bit too angular, the features a bit highset), but I think it's selling the most real emotion and mood.

I look at this though and the details of likeness (very good, but not perfect) are rendered unimportant. This feels like Buffy. Remember how Joss instructed the artists to not draw SMG but to draw Buffy?

This is Buffy. Weary, defeated, letting the world crash over her without the energy to fight back, to protest, to even cry. The emotion of this piece is powerful, almost hypnotizing, and very, very Buffy.

Excellent. I feel as it I could stare at this all day and get lost in it. The way shadow is used, the brush strokes of shade that run atop Buffy's form, as if her picture was crumpled, as if the slashes of light and shadow are painting over her at the bottom, as if she's being swallowed by greater forces and she's submitting.

Understated and powerful. There's real heart in this piece where before in other covers I often saw poses and likenesses that felt a bit plastic. Even the detail of the hand speaks of this inward pain. Normally when Buffy's caught in an angst-ridden moment, she throws her hand out and says "Don't touch me!" But this reminds me more of grief, turning your hand inward to cover your heart, but the hand is limp and almost boneless. There's weakness and pain, but a pain without the energy to grieve with loud tears and wails. All this pain is emanating from deep inside, silent and heartbreaking and quiet. All Buffy's energy has been used to silence the pain, to try to capture it inside her, to shoulder it alone and controlling her emotions has taken it's toll--she has no energy left to fight.

The earthy palette choice gives a feeling of the mundane. Makes me think how life has defeated Buffy, not the supernatural, but the pain of life, of love and connection. Her weakness and her strength are in how she's so very human.

I love this cover. I think it tells a story that leaves me feeling haunted and aching for Buffy.